Design of a laminated composite variable curvature panel under uniaxial compression

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to present the optimal design of a simply supported variable curvature laminated angle-ply composite panel under uniaxial compression. The objective is to maximize the failure load which is defined as the minimum of the buckling load and the first-ply failure load. Design/methodology/approach - The numerical results presented are obtained using a shear deformable degenerated shell finite element, a brief formulation of which is given. Some verification problems are solved and a convergence study is conducted in order to assess the accuracy of the element. The design procedure is presented and optimization results are given for a simply supported symmetric eight layer angle-ply panel composed of a fiat and two cylindrical sections. Findings - The influences of the stacking sequence and panel thickness on optimization are investigated and the effects of various problem parameters on the optimization procedure are discussed. Originality/value - The paper shows that the load carrying capacity of thicker panels is considerably reduced when the first-ply failure constraint is taken into account.